The Churchill Way Flyovers and elevated pedestrian walkway were relics from a long forgotten ‘masterplan’ for city
The Churchill Way Flyovers and elevated pedestrian walkway were relics from a long forgotten ‘masterplan’ for city
The Churchill Way flyovers were built as one aspect of a masterplan for Liverpool that would have completely changed the city’s skyline. Now, just remnants of them remain as Liverpool City Council plans for the future of what it is calling ‘St George’s Gateway’.
Having demolished the flyovers between 2019 and 2020, the local authority says it unlocked potential for development in and around Hunter Street and Byrom Street as well as access and connectivity potential for residents in communities to the north of the city centre. The site for regeneration is 35-hectares.
It is defined to its east by Lime Street Station, Dale Street to the west, Hunter Street to the north and Whitechapel to the south. Byrom Street currently dissects the site, providing access to the Queensway Tunnel which sits at the centre of the site, adjacent to St John’s Gardens.
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The council said it has “significant development potential with major opportunities for sustainable growth and enhanced connectivity set within a world class public realm” and the ECHO reported last week it is looking for a partner to prepare a planning policy and delivery framework for the plan.
However, around 60 years ago, the flyovers were a key part of the city’s then-plans for regeneration. The 240-metre long flyovers were built as part of a city centre inner ring road scheme that was never built as one part of a bold ‘masterplan’ in the 1960s for the city that never fully materialised.
The plans included ‘walkways in the sky’, motorways and mega-structures in a set of plans that would have created a very different looking city centre to the one we recognise. Opened in 1970, the flyovers connected Lime Street to Dale Street and Tithebarn Street.
Underneath the flyover was an elevated footbridge served by spiral ramps and stairs that allowed pedestrians to cross the busy main roads. For nearly half a century, the structures dominated the city centre landscape around Liverpool Central Library, Lime Street Station and the museums.
But what was initially thought to be the answer to congestion in the city centre near the tunnel entrance didn’t quite turn out as planned. The idea that traffic coming into Liverpool from Edge Lane and the East Lancs Road would be diverted onto the Churchill Flyover, allowing them to drive over the queues for the tunnel and into the city.
However, the opening of the newer Kingsway Tunnel in 1971 significantly relieved the traffic problems. The later abandonment of the ring road scheme meant that the flyovers felt like more of an afterthought.
Also, after only a year, there were signs that the state-of-the art footbridge, which had underfloor heating to avoid icing over in the winter months, wasn’t being used as planned. In 1971, the ECHO ran a story about the traffic down Byrom Street, one of the main roads in and out of the Mersey Tunnel, which was ten lanes wide at its busiest point.
The ECHO reported that despite the road being a hazard to pedestrians, few people were using the elevated footbridge, preferring instead to take their chances walking across the road. In 1985, just 15-years after they opened, the flyovers were closed to traffic for over two years.
Described in the ECHO as “Liverpool’s most famous, and almost forgotten, flyovers”, work needed to be carried out on the bases of columns supporting the structure. This was despite in 1971, the structure winning the prestigious Concrete Society’s annual award for outstanding merit in the use of concrete.
But the death knell for the Churchill Flyovers came in 2018, at the discovery of construction flaws and multiple defects, resulting in them shutting to the public. Many of the problems dated back to when the flyovers were built.
In some parts, the wooden moulds used to build the flyover broke open, meaning too much concrete was poured in and the flyover is heavier than was first thought, placing more stress on the structure. This had not been known until the inspection as the hollow decks of the flyover were built without manholes for engineers to see inside.
There are also serious problems with drainage. Parts of the wooden formwork inside the flyover decks had rotted away due to water damage.
Elsewhere the survey revealed that some cables and steelwork, supposed to be buried within the concrete, were actually left too near the surface. That means it has rusted – and in some areas the metal rusted so much it had expanded and blown bits of concrete clean off the flyover.
The council said they were left with no choice but to bring the structures down due to irreversible deterioration. The job of pulling them down cost £6.75m and took around three months, with the huge structures dismantled into 25 metre sections.
